Disclaimer: It's been two games.
Fact: This is fun hockey.
We all know this is a game full of wondrous skill that can take your breath away. But at its core, it's an effort sport. There's lots of luck and funky bounces involved, but a good chunk of the time, if you put your nose to the grindstone much more than your opponent, you will get rewarded.
The Sabres have failed miserably in that area for far too long. It's been woefully routine to watch them prancing around the ice like it's an evening skate at Canalside on the old Aud site.
The Sabres (2-0) started the season with consecutive wins for the first time since 2019-20.
Not so far this season. You started to feel a shift in April and May under Don Granato. And the first two games of this season have marked a full-blown personality change.
"We are harder to play against," center Cody Eakin said Saturday after the Sabres suffocated Arizona all afternoon and emerged with a richly deserved shootout victory in KeyBank Center "We're always playing with speed on the forecheck, the backcheck, and it just kind of gets annoying to other teams."
Annoying. Perfect description. Put it on some T-shirts.
The Sabres are buzzing around the ice like a bunch of gnats. The Montreal Canadiens and the Coyotes had to be exhausted after dealing with them the first two games.
"I love the fact that Cody said that," Granato said. "If you can play hard, that's a good characteristic to have. And if the guys embrace that, I'm all for it."
All this talk about being tougher to play against during training camp could have been lip service. But in these first two games, the Sabres have hounded the puck. If you were keeping time of possession like they do in football, Buffalo would have a monstrous edge.
The Sabres have been beasts down low in the offensive zone and have been super active on the penalty kill. They're overwhelming teams with their four lines, and their hard style of practice that general manager Kevyn Adams mandated in the wake of Ralph Krueger's dismissal is paying off in the kind of conditioning you need late in games.
"We're a tougher team, but it doesn't feel like we put that much (more) effort because we play together," said Rasmus Dahlin, an absolute dynamo with the puck on Saturday. "And it's easy to play when it's fun."
Eakin joked that linemates Kyle Okposo and Zemgus Girgensons are playing like they're 22 again, and that trio has been nothing short of spectacular. According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the line of Tage Thompson between Rasmus Asplund and Victor Olofsson was on the ice for 15 shot attempts for and none against at 5-on-5.
Sabres center Drake Caggiula (91) battle's Arizona defenseman Conor Timmins (25) for a loose puck during the third period on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021.
At some point in the game, every forward was dangerous. The crowd of 7,872 was hooting and applauding at the end of many shifts as the Sabres caused fits with their forechecking. They are dominating along the wall and simply not letting opponents break out of their zone without a serious challenge. We almost never saw this kind of hockey at all under Krueger or Phil Housley, both of whom produced flat-out soft teams.
Connection is a word that resonates in Buffalo Sabres history. We saw it again in a season opener nothing short of stunning.
The Sabres have given up just two goals in the two games, as the the goalies have rung up an 0.96 goals-against average and .962 save percentage. It's the first time since 2008 they've opened a season allowing two goals over the first two games.
Craig Anderson and Dustin Tokarski have been solid, but that stat is rooted all the way up the ice. There are better decisions being made with the puck by the forwards, so there are no sudden odd-man rushes going the other way. The defense has stopped backing up and is closing its gaps. You're thus seeing the goalies not put into nearly as many high-pressure spots.
Granato is showing a willingness to believe in his players in all situations. Thompson, who played another strong game, took a defensive zone faceoff with 15 seconds left in regulation in a tie game, even though he had never played center in pro hockey until this preseason.
"All our guys need experience in these situations and that's the only way they're going to learn. You don't learn to swim and not get wet," Granato said.
Along those lines, it was fascinating to watch Granato navigate his first overtime of the season, with the 3-on-3 affairs understandably weighted toward heavy use of Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart for several years. That duo is gone now and the coach has an evolving team, so guys who didn't get a sniff in the past were out there Saturday.
Okposo and Girgensons got the start and they deserved it. Olofsson and Thompson were a pair, along with Asplund and Jeff Skinner, who was infamously banned from OT by Krueger. Dylan Cozens, Vinnie Hinostroza and Anders Bjork all got chances as well, while Dahlin and Jacob Bryson manned the back end.
"I cannot find it in my being right now to say this guy is better than that guy. There's just too much, the ceiling is too high for too many guys," Granato said. "And I do not want to separate guys with, 'This guy can't play this situation because you're not good.' I just won't believe that in our locker room. They're all evolving players and they need to evolve through those situations, even if they make a mistake."
Now the bumps in the road are coming. Saturday's game showed how the club will struggle offensively to finish, especially with Casey Mittelstadt out. Arizona goalie Karel Vejmelka had a strong game, but was a rookie in his NHL debut and the Sabres should have been able to get some pucks by him long before a shootout was needed.
And the upcoming schedule is infinitely tougher, with Vancouver and Boston coming to town and a trip to improving New Jersey. That trio will seriously test Buffalo's center depth.
That's fine. But anybody on the other side of the ice expecting an easy night is forewarned: The first step to respectability is not giving opponents a night off. The Sabres are getting there fast.
